1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a recording and reproducing apparatus for performing recording and reproduction of video information and audio information and, more particularly, to a recording and reproducing apparatus for retrieving and reproducing the video information and the audio information.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, to record or reproduce a moving-image signal, it has generally been to employ a so-called VTR (video tape recorder) which uses magnetic tape having a tape width of 1/2 inch or 8 mm as a recording medium.
In such a VTR, a rotary head provided on a rotary drum is used to record and reproduce video information for one field per track on and from magnetic tape wrapped around the rotary drum. In the VTR, retrieval of video information, i.e., cueing, is performed while actually reproducing recorded video information by utilizing functions using an index signal for cueing a video scene, such as "fast forward feed", "rewinding control" and "special reproduction".
However, if the retrieval is performed in the conventional VTR, since the video information is recorded on a tape-shaped recording medium, the time taken to transport tape is needed to retrieve desired video information, and the retrieval may occasionally require time-consuming and exhausting operations.
Also, during the retrieval operation, the rotary head is tracing the magnetic tape while repetitively making contact with the magnetic tape on which information is recorded. As a result, the magnetic tape may be abraded or scratched to adversely affect the reliability of the recorded information.
Another problem is that in the case of a VTR adopting a recording system based on an analog signal, if retrieved information is copied (duplicated) to another medium, a degradation of image quality due to so-called dubbing is caused.